Faculty News

Professor Richard Painter was quoted on the Bloomberg news page about Elizabeth Warren's outside work while head of the Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the $700 billion bank bailout. Warren was paid $90,000 this year to be an expert witness in a class-action lawsuit against some of the biggest U.S. banks. "She should have had the judgment to say no," said Painter, who was chief ethics lawyer in the White House counsel's office and last year published a scholarly work on government ethics. He went on to say, "it's highly inappropriate in a position that has this much power."

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Amy Kristin Sanders participated on a panel entitled "Building and Managing Online Communities," at a conference at the Center for Sustainable Journalism in Atlanta. The conference, "Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?" was sponsored by The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Sanders discussed the role of anonymous commenters, provided guidance on drafting web site user agreements and privacy policies and explained the Section 230 legal protections for online publishers.

Read Amy Sanders's Faculty Profile

Professor Prentiss Cox was quoted in a Minnesota Public Radio story on Sept. 22 about the impact of foreclosures in Isanti County, Minnesota and similar communities. Cox also appeared on a Southern California Public Radio call-in show on Sept. 22 about problems in the foreclsoure process.

Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile

Prof. Jane Kirtley was quoted by Bloomberg News in a story about a Second Circuit case that will consider whether an executive convicted of securities fraud for allegedly backdating stocks was denied his right to a fair trial when his cross-examination of a Wall Street Journal reporter was curtailed by the trial judge. The extent of the reporters' privilege in criminal cases, Kirtley said, "is very much a live issue in most courts around the country."

Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile

Professor Heidi Kitrosser will chair a panel on Sept. 20 on executive privilege at the Washington, D.C. office of the Miller Center for Public Affairs of the University of Virginia. The Miller Center brings together academics, practitioners, government officials, media representatives and others to explore major public policy issues, "with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency." The panel that Professor Kitrosser will chair is called "Establishing Rational Limits to Coverage of Executive Privilege." The other panelists are Thomas Davis, former Representative and Chair of the House Government Reform Committee, Louis Fisher, senior scholar at the Library of Congress, and Miriam Nemetz, former White House Associate Counsel.

Read Heidi Kitrosser's Faculty Profile

Professor Prentiss Cox was quoted in a Star Tribune story on Sept. 19 about debt collection practices with the families of the deceased. The article stated that Cox "argues that collector calls to family members of the recently deceased 'violate common standards of human decency' and should be prohibited."

Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter, a former White House ethics adviser, was quoted in a Pioneer Press story on the controversies surrounding Judge Timothy Blakely. When asked, "Was the electorate apathetic, sympathetic or just uninformed?" Painter said it could be a mixture of all three.

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

The Star Tribune published an article by Professor Laura J. Cooper, responding to an editorial published by the newspaper on Sept. 14. Professor Cooper's article refutes factual assertions made in the editorial by presenting data from an empirical study of Minnesota labor arbitration awards. Professor Cooper co-authored the study, analyzing the largest data base ever assembled of published and unpublished arbitration decisions on employee discipline and discharge, with Professor Stephen F. Befort of the Law School and emeritus Professor Mario Bognanno of the Carlson School of Management.

Read Laura Cooper's Faculty Profile

Professor Nancy Cook is among a group of law faculty serving as consultants in “Best Practices” who will be meeting at the Law School on Friday, Sept. 10. The law school is hosting the gathering to provide the opportunity for experiential education experts from around the country to share resources and plan and develop faculty professional development programs. The first training workshops for interested faculty are to be held in conjunction with the Association of American Law School’s annual meeting in San Francisco, January 5-8.

Read Nancy Cook's Faculty Profile

Professor Prentiss Cox was quoted in a New York Times article about state housing finance agencies offering purchase money home loans with no or minimum down payment. Cox stated that such loans were publicly beneficial despite having a similar feature to the loans that led to the mortgage market collapse. He noted the strong record of state HFAs in making loans to promote home ownership and distinguished responsible subprime lending by public agencies from the unregulated private loan market for subprime loans that led to the financial crisis.

Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile

Professor Brett McDonnell was quoted in a recent Fox Business/Reuters article on the SEC's adoption of a new shareholder proxy access rule. Under the new rule, shareholders who hold enough shares can nominate candidates for the board of directors using the corporation's own proxy statement, a much cheaper process for shareholders than creating their own proxy solicitation. The new rule has generated much controversy, and faces likely legal challenges. The article quotes McDonnell on what a court might do. "As it stands, the law appears internally contradictory," he said. "You could perhaps fix the problem by allowing shareholders to opt out of the rule in any direction they choose. Much of the law would still be valid."

Read Brett McDonnell's Faculty Profile